July 2002

FIRE WHEN YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR HEADLIGHTS

The Michigan governor should call out the National Guard to take dangerous trucks off the roads, says a county commissioner in Flint who dislikes Canadian garbage being trucked into his area.

“The state troopers who do occasionally patrol the expressways seldom, if ever, stop semi-trucks because the troopers simply are not trained to do truck enforcement,” John D. Nickola said in The Flint Journal. “I can statistically predict that there will be a catastrophic event on I-69 within the near future.”

“He’s out to get every darn truck on the road, and that’s wrong,” says owner-operator Darrold Isham of Flint. “It’s not right to slam every truck driver just because he has a bone to pick with some garbage. Some poor, unsuspecting driver could come into this area and get caught in a rat’s nest.”

Besides, Isham adds, doesn’t the National Guard have more important things to do these days than harass truckers?


CARTOON BLASTS SPEEDING TRUCKS ON I-81

This editorial cartoon by John R. Rose of the Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record annoyed James E. Didawick of Woodstock, Va., whose trucker father retired after more than 3 million miles. “This type of cartoon only serves to reinforce the idea to the uninformed that truck drivers are speed demons who will run over anything that gets in their way,” Didawick says. The address for complaints: Daily News-Record, P.O. Box 193, Harrisonburg, Va. 22801. Rose’s drawing style may look familiar, as he also draws the 83-year-old syndicated comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.


HE’S ANYTHING BUT CHARMIN’

New
Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer
Know your costs? Compute the potential profit in any truckload, analyze per-day and per-mile breakouts, and compare real offers on multiple loads or game out hypothetical rate/lane scenarios. Enter your trucking business's fixed and variable costs, and load information, to get started.
Try it out!
Attachments Idea Book Cover

Flush away your frustrations with some “Wipe out terrorism” toilet paper. Each two-ply square shows Osama bin Laden’s face. The four-packs are $24.95 from Consumers Interstate in Norwich, Conn. Call (800) 450-5447, Ext. 263, or visit www.toiletpaperworld.com.


QUOTABLES

That’s entertainment
“This one here is a beauty.”
– Jean Powers of Antonelli’s Meat Market in Waterbury, Conn., who keeps binoculars near the register to check out big-rig wrecks on the I-84 ramp over the Naugatuck River

Let’s hold our noses for another 19
“It’s been 19 stinking years.”
– Art Philip, chairman of toll highways in Illinois, saying a rate increase is long overdue

Waaaaa!
“There’s going to be a lot of hungry babies in Norfolk tonight.”
– Spencer Nave Jr. of Williamsport, Md., who was hauling baby food to Virginia when a blowout wrecked his truck

It’s a sort of tax
“During the Taliban time, there was one government and one law. Now every district has its own government.”
– Trucker Mateeulla Jan, who had to bribe soldiers nine times on a 310-mile haul across Afghanistan

Whoa!
“They dive into the exit, and when they do, look out. They’ve knocked down the signs at times.”
– Kansas trooper Charles Burton, on last-minute lane changes to get into the inspection station

Showcase your workhorse
Add a photo of your rig to our Reader Rigs collection to share it with your peers and the world. Tell us the story behind the truck and your business to help build its story.
Submit Your Rig
Reader Rig Submission